The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at 2 p.m. on Saturday 10 June, 2023, in Room G22/26, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. The President, Professor Roy Gibson, was in the chair and welcomed members and non-members to the AGM.

The President reported on the Society's activities over the previous year, starting with its publication programme. He thanked the current Editors, Professor Peter Thonemann (JRS) and Professor Will Bowden (Britannia), and the Reviews Editors, Dr Myles Lavan (JRS) and Dr Nick Hodgson (Britannia). He particularly thanked Professor Thonemann who was now stepping down as Editor: he would be replaced by Dr Lavan, who would now also become a Director and Trustee of the Society. Professor Neville Morley would now become the JRS Reviews Editor. The President also reported that since the last AGM, the Society had published Britannia Monograph 36, The Emperor Nero's Pottery and Tilery at Little London, Pamber, by Silchester, Hampshire. The Excavations of 2017 by Michael Fulford. However, he was very sad to report the news that the Britannia Monographs Editor, Mr Paul Bidwell, had died in September, after quite a sudden illness (he was present at the AGM last year to celebrate the book launch of the Chedworth Roman Villa volume). The Society is grateful to Mr Paul Booth who has taken over the role as Editor. The President also noted that two further editions of Epistula had been published online and emailed to members, and he thanked the Editor, Dr Frances McIntosh.

The President then turned to the programme of events and lectures. Since the last AGM, the Society has held a number of evening events: in November, Professor Tim Cornell delivered his Presidential Lecture, ‘The Consular Fasti and the early history of the Roman Republic'; in December, Dr Emilio Zucchetti (Germanicus Scholar 2020–2022) delivered a lecture: ‘Were Private Debts Publicly Recorded in the Late Republic? Tabulae novae, the Multitude, and the Leader in the Debt Crisis of 48–47 b.c.e'; and in February, Professor Peter Sarris delivered a lecture on: ‘Justinian: Holy Emperor and Demon King’.

The Society has also held a number of joint events: in June last year with the Hellenic Society and Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, Professor Judith Herrin gave a lecture: ‘Rethinking Late Antiquity as Early Christendom'; in February, with the Hellenic Society and Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House, Dr Yannis Galanakis gave a lecture on: ‘The AntiquitiesTrade in Late 19th-century Greece – Stories of People & Objects’; and in March, with the Hellenic Society, there was a series of lectures on the Antikythera mechanism, with talks by Dr Jo Marchant, Professor Mike Edmunds and Dr Seb Falk, chaired by Professor Liba Taub.

The Society also joined with the British Epigraphy Society and Hellenic Society for an online event ‘Remembering Joyce Reynolds' (Joyce Reynolds, Roman Society President 1986–1989). In January, we joined with the Hellenic Society and the British Institute at Ankara to remember Gina Coulthard, who had worked on Britannia. Stephen Hill and Stephen Mitchell delivered tributes to Ms Coulthard, and Dr Jane Rempel delivered the Gina Coulthard Memorial Lecture: ‘Sinope in a Black Sea World’.

The main event for the Archaeology Committee and Britannia Board was the day conference, ‘Reconnecting Roman Britain’, a new in-person event aimed at showcasing the latest research and findings on Britain in the Roman world and enhancing cross-sector and community connections. The event was organised by Professor Andrew Gardner and a small committee including Dr Lisa Lodwick (Britannia Board) who sadly died just before the event, but we would like to remember all her work on behalf of the Society, for both the Britannia Board and Archaeology Committee.

In March, the Society also enjoyed a visit to the Roman Baths in Bath to see the new World Heritage Centre and Learning Centre, organised for us by the Director, Amanda Hart. There are several more visits planned for later this year, including a four-day trip to Hadrian's Wall at the end of August.

The President noted that the various grants committees had continued with their work, disbursing grants from our various funds, and he recorded the Society's gratitude to the Polonsky Foundation for continuing its generous award to support our grants programme for schools.

He congratulated Caitlin Spencer (Birkbeck) and Sólveig Hilmarsdóttir (Cambridge), the winners of the MA dissertation prizes. The Archaeology Committee offered a new prize this year, the Britannia Award, to recognise outstanding voluntary contributions to Roman archaeology in Britain. The first recipients are Scott Vanderbilt and Chris Blair-Myers (they will be presented with their awards at the Reconnecting Roman Britain conference which will be held in Newcastle later this year). He also congratulated Karl Dahm, the holder of the Germanic Scholarship 2022–2023, after the previous holder Emilo Zucchetti had been offered a permanent post at Royal Holloway.

The President thanked the Archaeology Committee and its Chair, Dr Ursula Rothe; the Schools Committee and its chair, Dr Clare Harvey; and the Roman Studies Committee and its chair, Professor Roland Mayer; and Dr Claire Millington for all her work on the Society's social media channels. He also thanked everyone who had served on all the Society's Committees and Council, including the retiring Council members: Dr Henriette van der Blom, Dr Katharine Earnshaw, Dr Penny Goodman, Professor Julia Hillner, Professor Christian Laes and Dr Katharine Walker. He remembered Dr Harriet O'Neill, a member of Council since June 2021, who had died in May after a short illness. He also remembered Dr Ross Thomas who had served as a Council member (2018–2021) and was currently serving on the Donald Atkinson Funds Committee and sadly died in November last year.

The President also thanked Professor Mike Trapp (the Hon Librarian), Ms Joanna Ashe and the team of Librarians, for all their work for the Library during the last year. He noted that a number of events had been held in aid of the Library fundraising campaign, including with Natalie Haynes who spoke about her new book, Stone Blind; A.E. (Alicia) Stallings, who spoke about her new collection of poems (This Afterlife: Selected Poems), including some of her poems about the ICS; and a workshop, Greek and Roman antiquities handling workshop: recording, illustrating, 3D modelling The fundraising appeal continues and the Society and Library remain grateful to all members who continue to make donations: members can still easily contribute online via the HARL website: www.hellenicandromanlibrary.org.

Professor Gibson then invited Dr Kay to introduce the accounts.

Dr Kay began by reading an extract from the report of the Society's independent auditors, Buzzacott LLP, which is contained in the Society's Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2022: ‘In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31st December 2022, and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended’.

Turning to the 2022 financial results, Dr Kay reported that total income for the year was £489,000 which was an increase of 8 per cent on 2021. Income from the publishing agreements with Cambridge University Press, for JRS and Britannia, fell by 15 per cent to £124,000 from an unusually high figure in 2021, while revenue from membership subscriptions grew by 4 per cent to £106,000, mainly due to an increase in Gift Aid on subscriptions. The Society also received a £20,000 donation from the Polonsky Foundation to support grants for schools.

However, total costs for the year increased by 22 per cent to £450,000, with the main factors being the expenses associated with staging the Roman Archaeology Conference in Croatia, a £15,000 donation to HARL, higher monograph expenses, and increased staff and support costs.

All this means that the net income of your Society, before investment gains and losses, was £40,000, a 54 per cent decrease compared to 2021. Also, because of the increased expenditure in 2022, net cash flow was negative for the first time in a number of years. We therefore decided to liquidate £100,000 of the investment portfolio to cover the shortfall.

Finally, the Society's investment portfolio itself, which is managed by Newton, was down by 5.3 per cent in 2022. The main factors affecting performance were, of course, the war in Ukraine, inflation, and higher interest rates. But the portfolio did outperform its benchmark by 1.5 per cent and it also outperformed most comparable investment funds, which were down by between 5 per cent and 12 per cent for the year.

Therefore, overall, it was a tricky year. And, given the rise in costs that the Society is experiencing, Council has agreed to recommend to the AGM today an increase in subscription rates of 10 per cent from January 2024, except for the student rate which will remain the same. Dr Kay reminded the AGM that this will be the first increase since 2020.

Professor Gibson thanked Dr Kay for all his work as Hon. Treasurer. He asked the members to approve the Report of the Council and Financial Statements for 1 January to 31 December 2022: Dr George Maher proposed and Dr Tim Leary seconded the motion. That the Council be authorised to agree the remuneration of the Auditors was proposed by Professor Catharine Edwards and seconded by Dr Tim Leary. That Buzzacott be appointed Auditors of the Society for the period 1 January to 31 December 2023 was proposed by Dr Myles Lavan and seconded by Dr Claire Millington.

Dr Clare Harvey proposed and Dr Shushma Malik seconded the following nominations for Council: as Vice-Presidents for 2023–24: Professor T.J. Cornell, Professor C.H. Edwards, FBA, Professor D.W. Rathbone; as Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary for 2023–24: Dr P.B. Kay, FSA, and Professor R.G. Mayer, respectively; and as Council members for 2023–26: Professor R. Langlands, Dr E. O'Gorman, Dr H. Platts, Professor C. Panayotakis, Dr J. Renshaw, Dr C. Stocks and Ms E. Stuart.

Dr Myles Lavan was appointed as Editor of the JRS and Dr Andrew Burnett was appointed as an Hon. Vice-President.

Resolution 5, that the subscription rates be increased as follows:

Student Membership to stay the same was proposed by Dr Andrew Burnett and seconded by Dr Helen Cockle.

All the above Resolutions were passed nem. con. There was no other business.

The AGM was followed by a Colloquium on Ancient Enslavement: fresh perspectives

2.30 Myles Lavan (St Andrews): Manumission in the Roman world: a comparative perspective

3.00 Henrik Mouritsen (KCL): Recent trends in the study of ancient slavery

3.45 Tea

4.15 April Pudsey (ManMet): The Lives and Concerns of Enslaved Children: Evidence from Roman and Late Antique Egypt

4.45 Alice Rio (KCL): Early Medieval Slavery: what changed?

5.30 Reception